A French man has tested positive for the new Covid-19 strain after recently travelling from London.
The case was found in the city of Tours and is thought to be the first in France.
In a statement, the French Health Ministry said the man in question arrived from London on December 19, and is currently self-isolating.
He is thought to be feeling alright, the ministry added.
It comes as the number of cases and deaths from Covid-19 mounted in the country, increasing concerns of a new wave of the virus hitting the euro zone's second-biggest economy.
UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock recently said that a spike in coronavirus cases in the UK might have been linked to the new variant of the virus in the country.
Hancock said more than 1,000 cases of the new variant had been identified, mainly in southeastern England.
Countries around the world have in recent days closed their borders to both Britain and South Africa following the identification of cases of the new, fast-spreading variant of the coronavirus in those countries.
France registered 20,262 new, confirmed COVID-19 cases and 159 more related deaths in hospitals in the last 24 hours.
France's number of confirmed COVID-19 cases now stands at 2,547,771 while its COVID-19 death toll stands at 62,427 - the seventh-highest in the world.
